KANNUR(Kerala) | May 01, 2015: Sand-mining and distribution will resume in the district on May 5 following grant of environmental clearance (EC) by the State-level Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) for sand-mining in 58 ‘kadavus,’ District Collector P. Bala Kiran has said.
Announcing this at a press conference here on Thursday, the Collector said of the total 81 kadavus located in 36 panchayats in the district, clearance had been given for sand-mining in 58 kadavus.
Twenty three kadavus, including those in the areas surrounding the Pamburuthi island, are yet to get the SEIAA nod. The Collector’s earlier decision to permit sand-mining in the Pamburuthi area had sparked protests from the people. Mr. Kiran said the sand passes, already issued to applicants, would be renewed. There are 24,000 pending applications, he added.
As per the EC condition, the sand-mining will be allowed only from three metres from the summer water level of the river, he said. The clearance will be valid till October 19. The Collector has been recently ordered to appear before the NGT Chennai Bench on a complaint from the residents of the Pamburuthi island against his decision to allow sand-mining till March 26.
Mr. Kiran said the NGT Chennai Bench had ordered that no such permission without the clearance should be given in future. It also noted that his decision was not wilful.
Explaining the situation that had led to his issuing the permit to continue sand-mining, he said Kannur was the first district in the State to have secured the EC in the wake of the NGT Principal Bench’s order on August 5, 2013. When the validity had ended, sand-mining was banned from July 2014, he said.
But the sand-mining had been allowed to be continued till March 26 on the hope that the government would further extend the date or the EC would be granted, he said.
(Source: http://www.thehindu.com/)